Will Military Members Get Paid if Government Shuts Down?

The government still hasn’t passed next year’s funding bill, leaving the possibility of a government shutdown if the funding bill isn’t passed by September 30, 2013. How would a government shutdown affect the average American, and just as importantly, what would it mean for our men and women in uniform?

These are great questions. A government shutdown would affect a large segment of our population, including federal government employees and military members. But what about military retirees, Social Security Recipients, and recipients of other government and military benefits such as TRICARE, VA benefits, and more? The answers to these questions vary, depending on several situations.

What Happens if the Government Shuts Down?

First, let’s start with a little background on the situation: The US government is required to pass a spending bill each year. Essentially, this is their budget – without it the government ceases many operations and as a result, many government agencies will stop work and many will stop paying employees. The current spending bill ends September 30th, and without passing a new spending bill, the government will essentially shut down.

Will Military Members Get Paid?

Update: The government has passed approved military pay during the government shutdown. However, most government civilians will not receive pay during the shutdown, and man government and military support facilities will be closed. Check with your base for a list of current closings.

The answer is yes, and no. Military members will receive their paycheck on October 1st, but there is the possibility that service members won’t get paid beyond October 1st if the government shutdown extends beyond that date. The Air Force Times recently quoted Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, as saying, “All military personnel will continue to serve and accrue pay, but will not actually be paid until appropriations are available.”

In this case, employees would be paid for their work up to the day the spending bill expired, or September 30th. Earnings through September 30th would be paid on October 1st, 2013. So the first possible missed paycheck would be the mid-month paycheck due on October 15th.

What does this mean for military members? The first thing to consider is that this hasn’t happened yet – the government has a tendency to burn the midnight oil when a showdown looms, often working until the early morning hours to either pass the funding bill, or pass a bill that gives them a deadline extension. At this point, a band-aid is better than nothing. Should they fail to reach a new agreement on the funding bill, it is possible that the government could shut down many services and stop making payments.

How much will you be paid, and when? If the government shuts down, you will receive your pay earned through the date at which the government shuts down. At this time the deadline is September 30th, which would make for a normal paycheck on the regularly scheduled October 1st payday. As stated above, military members would continue working and accruing pay after the cutoff date, so the next paycheck would be normal as long as the funding bill was passed in enough time for payments to be made.

Military members will receive back pay. If the government shuts down and military members don’t receive paychecks, they will receive back pay for missed paychecks.

Some government employees may not be required to report to work. If a funding bill is not passed, most government employees will be temporarily furloughed and will not be required to work until a spending bill is passed. However, there are exemptions, especially for those whose work is required for national security, including most military members. These groups of military members will be broken into exempt and non-exempt categories. So operations in war zones, humanitarian relief, and many people involved in fields such as medical, security, and transportation will continue to work.

What about other benefits? Benefits related to your pay, such as BAS and BAH will not be paid during a potential government shutdown, however, other benefits may still be around, such as health care. Military members may also be forced to cancel leave because technically the government is not allowed to permit government workers to take paid leave while there is no spending plan, due to the way paid leave works from an accounting standpoint. At this point, much is still in the air, and these concerns may not have all been determined at this time. The Pentagon is awaiting more information before releasing official guidance for military members and their families.

Military related payments not expected to stop. The government shut down will only affect paychecks for government spending which must be approved on an annual basis. Some military related payments are made from a separate pot of money and likely won’t be affected. The following payments are expected to continue without interruption:

What about Social Security Benefits, Veterans Health benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.? During the last shut down, the government continued sending Social Security Benefits to recipients. This should continue again. However, many non-emergency veteran health care services were curtailed during the shutdowns. Medicare, Medicaid and VA health care benefits would continue during a shutdown, but payments for the care may be later than normal. So be aware of this when planning any non-emergency or low-priority medical care.

UPDATE: Here are some tips for Dealing With a Missed Military Paycheck. These tips can show you how to get by on your own or how to contact your lender, landlord, or financial aid service to get help with this situation.

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Ryan Guina is the founder and editor of this site. He is a writer, small business owner, and entrepreneur. He served over 6 years on active duty in the USAF and is currently serving in the IL Air National Guard. He also writes about money management, small business, and career topics at Cash Money Life. You can also see his profile on Google.

I hear you, but it ‘s not worth going AWOL for what will likely be a temporary situation. I guarantee the politicians in DC can’t afford to have military members go without pay – it would be a political disaster for them. My guess is they come up with some form of temporary solution for military members if this were to drag on.

It’s disgusting that congress will still get paid while military won’t. I recall being a private with a family to feed and many times not having enough to eat. Back pay, great, but most of us didn’t have any savings to fall back on. I guess there’s that disconnect between the have’s in washington and the have-nots doing their work for them.

If military gets backpay anyway, why not just pay them? Its unreal that managing a budget is their job and they cant even get it right. If I couldnt do my job, I’d be fired. Maybe thats what needs to happen to them.

That’s exactly what will happen Nov 2012. Fire the Republicans who won’t raise taxes to balance the budget, but want to cut everything, including taxes on the rich. Go figure! Vote for someone who cares about jobs, workers’ rights, women’s rights, education and the elderly. Vote the Dems back in!

This country is taxed to death. I am only middle class, and I pay over a quarter of my income in taxes to the federal government alone, not counting what I have to pay to the state. Tax cuts do stimulate jobs, I have seen it happen first hand. It just takes longer, it’s the “I want it now” mentality that has bankrupted this nation. If you want communism, go to Cuba.

Let’s see? Didn’t the fiscal year end in October? Which party had majority control of the government and could have passed any law or budget that they wanted to without a single bi-partison vote from the other side? Oh Yeah! It was the Democrats! Yeah, that’s just who I want to re-elect. A group of morons that don’t do their jobs. The country spoke in November and the Republicans, for once, are trying to make good on their campaign promises. Get a life!

Well said Aaron. Nancy Pelosi’s House failed to do their job in FY10, so that is why we were in this situation last month.

Gene fails to realize that in order to balance the budget, raising taxes AND cutting spending needs to take place. Taxing the rich just makes it easier for them to shelter their assets, then the raised tax rates roll on down to the middle class. It’s simple economics people.

Michele, right now this hasn’t happened. I am remaining optimistic about the potential shutdown and its effects. The last two government shut downs were temporary in nature, and the pay disruption wasn’t long (and everyone received back pay). It would be political suicide for all political parties to let this drag on too far. If the government doesn’t reach a spending plan agreement by Friday, then they will work overtime until they reach one. It may get ugly, but I don’t think it will last long. The best thing I can say is to hang in there and wait for more information. Best of luck and thanks for your service.

RYAN IT HAS HAPPENED TALK TO MILITARY WIVES THAT JUST CHECKED THIER LES AND ITS ONLY 1/2 THE AMOUNT. SO TELL ME WHO IS GONNA FEED THESE PEOPLE, PAY, THIER BILLS, LET ALONE GAS FOR THIER CARS. ONE WIFE I KNOW IS ONLY GETTING 600 DOLLARS ITS A FAMILY OF 3 YOU TELL ME BACK PAY THAT ISN’T A ANSWER IT DOESN’T HELP PEOPLE NOW. THAT IS A SOLUTION IN THE FUTURE BUT IT ISN’T PAYING THE BILLS NOW.

Valerie,
I am a military wife also with a family of 5 and my husband an Air Force E-5 is only getting $553. I honestly don’t know what we are going to do. I am a fulltime student and the only income I recieve is from my post 9/11 VA Education benefits and that’s only $333. I agree with you about the back pay because that’s money we need now. When we do recieve back pay, it will not be enough to pay bills that will be back owed. I mean we will have bills to pay with late fees and reconnect fees. My husband and the rest of these service men and women don’t deserve this. They all work too dang hard for their money to be issued out like this. The government need to get it together before they lose alot of folks, who will not be re-enlisting. THIS IS BEYOND CRAZY…THIS IS MAD CRAZY!!!

I am an E3 in the Air Force which means i make less than what some families on welfare make. Now i may not even get a pay check. I have done my job and continue to do my job, so can they please step up and do their job. I live 30 miles from my base so how can i afford the gas and my car payment to get me to work if they wont pay me?

I actually saw your post earlier on Cash Money Life about this same issue, and left a comment over there. The outpouring of rage we are seeing (even though this hasn’t even happened yet) is just a small dose of the betrayal that will be felt by the military if congress allows this to stretch on.

@ Jessica: Although I’m an officer, and luckily have a little bit put aside for this type of thing, I worry the most about people in your shoes. Many of the men and women I fly with on a daily basis are really concerned about this, especially those with families.

Indeed, Ryan is right. This won’t go on forever, but I am outraged like the rest of the commenters on this post. If one service member misses a payment or meal because of congressional ineptitude, it would be inexcusable.

What if the military did our jobs this poorly? We don’t have that choice, because lives our on the line. Congress needs to realize that lives are on the line even more with their decisions, and in this case livelihoods.

Jessica – keep up the good work and don’t lose hope. This is just insane – truely and I voted for the president. My nephew is in the Army and is very scared right now as with many many many other millitary peeps!!!! This just makes me sick! You have put it perfectly into words without saying too much – right to the point and I love it!!!!!!!!! You deserve to get paid and then some! Thank you Jessica and good luck in all you do! God Bless!

What if I can’t pay my house payment and my interest rate goes up becauseof it. Are they going to give me extra money a month to cover this new cost. What if my wife just sues the government what would happen.

I talked with my shirt today about it and he said “If they don’t pay us and we miss a payment that we cannot get out of, the government will NOT give us extra pay because of it.” So we’re all SOL if that happens. I feel your pain brother, If I miss a car payment and my credit drops the government wont help me fix it. =\

I’m in the same shoes as most of you but luckily I happen to live in base housing when it comes to rent. For the marines who did live out in town who had questions were told something about the Soldiers and Sailors Act that protects us from stuff like this. Get with your banks and let them know (most banks, especially the ones who work mostly with military already know like Navy Fed.) In most cases you will be protected. What me and my wife did was contact all our payment obligations and inform them of the situation and ask for a extension. The most important thing to me is my family’s needs first (groceries/gas). I’m not totally sure but most places will be okay offering a payment extension if its needed. I’m a E5 so a missing paycheck will really cause issues in my home. Hope I helped!

the problem with that is some of us are in combat zones and don’t have the time or resources to do all the prep work for that they made a mistake on my pay and i am not receiving any money for this month now i have to wait for this to be done with to get my back pay for that and now this how to i keep my car and stuff from getting reposed when I’m off in a combat zone in another country.

What are we as military spouses supposed to do when our husband is deployed and no money comes in? My husband is over there risking his life and if we don’t get a paycheck I think the back pay should have interest tacked on seeing a lot of us will have to pay bills with a credit card or loan.

I hear you on being a military wife. My husband is over there fighting also. I this the government needs to buck up and do the right thing. They need to make sure the MOST IMPORTANT PEOPLE GET PAID and those people is THE MILITARY. All they are trying to do is line their pockets while we worry if there is going to be a way for us to feed our children, go to the doctor, or even talk to our soldier that is over there fighting to keep this country free.

Form my viewpoint as a Senior NCO on Active Duty, I can’t help but have feelings of being attacked with another Terrorist attact, this time from within. I can handle a missed paycheck, but only because I have some laidback. Our Junior military members already (for the most part) are living from payday to payday with a small ability to save because of their rank and pay scale.
I would have less heartburn in having pay delayed because of a Government shut down if Congress, Senate and the Whitehouse Satff to include the Commander-in-Chief’s pay is cut off as well.

My biggest concern is that deployed Soldier who has a family back home not going to get paid; this cannot have a possitive affect on them when they need to have their mind on the battlefield. If we loose one individual because of this TERROR ATTACK on them…..

And we all have sworn to defend to Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and demestic.

I sir am an A1C which means i make next to nothing as it is. My husband and i are both active duty and we have a child. He is currently deployed. We have a little bit of savings but im not sure if it’s enough to get us through this. They expect me to be able to afford rent, utilities, car payment, food, and child care. How do they expect me to do all of this? I love my job and i love putting on this uniform everyday, but times like this definitely make me question what we are all fighting for.

we need to wipe the slate clean with the governmet by that i mean they need to re-elect all new people but dont lsoe faith in our government they will come up with something i have TWO children and a wife and im an e-3 in the army i am worried but trust god and everything will work out for the best just pray and trust in him..

It shouldn’t affect soldiers in training as far as being recycled. What will most likely happen is they will report as they normally would and continue with their training. The pay situation will likely be the same as the rest of the military, which means military members in training may experience some delays in pay. Keep in mind this isn’t final, and a lot is left unknown at this point. The best thing to do is pay attention to announcements by unit leaders. In all likelihood this will not be a prolonged event.

Actually, there are a couple of ways this could be done before 2014. They could be impeached or they could be recalled. Personally, I think they should all be charged with “Dereliction of Duty”. My true feeling is that they all need to be investigated and possibly charged with treasonous actions against this country.

Being a member of the military, I have a question. Shouldn’t we also recieve interest on the money we will not be recieving on time? If I don’t send my full payment to the credit card company each month I owe them interest. If you are not going to pay me in full so I can pay my bills, I need to recieve additional money to off set my troubles.

The article stated that GI Bill recipients WILL continue to receive their payments, as it comes out of a “pot” that is separate from the budget in question. It’s pretty sad that these so called “professionals” can’t even figure out how to balance a budget. There are many large companies in America that have a small group of say, 5 people who keep the budget under control. How many pinheads do we have that are doing essentially the same job in our government?

ryan i am glad your being optimistic about what this whole dam thing. but i feel the government will shut down. and further more to have politcalians get on national news tv saying that they cant come to an agreement on keeping the funding for the planned parent clinincs or pay the military well as far as im concern they can all go n @$#! themselves. my husband is in the army and unfortunately we are in that 90% of military that live pay check to pay check. but to put something that can be put back in to schools (sex ed) or better yet make people who have kids be dam parents and teach/suggest to their kids how to take care of babies/children over paying the most important people whose suppose to protect the worthless presidents ***, the captial, ect how dare they to do that especially right now when they need their service members. and as far as i feel the men and women who are in the war zones to include the security that suppose to protect them ought to go on strike let obama and that worthless clinton and everyone in the house worry what will happen to them with no protection. whats going to happen an article 15 with maybe a drop of rank? in the long run its better to stand up for your right and working to proctect and maing sure the us as their freedom is better than to sit back and keep ******** what is going on. its time we the people start telling our sentates, congressmen, and the president what will happen. and if obama doesnt take charge because this is part of his dam job then theres no sense in him running for reelection for president. he can take the $1 billion and give it to the government, because he will not be in office.

So we checked our LES (Leave Earning Statments) today and this is what they say, I for instance am not getting ANYTHING on the 15th. Some people are getting half pay, Some even less.. a Master Sergeant in our unit with 22 years is only getting 500 dollars.. WTH! I just filled Chapter 13. My ex wife left 2 years ago and cleaned me out while over seas. No im paying for it… I was dealing with it and for the first time in a long time I thought I could start rebuilding. Now Im sitting at my desk at work and seeing a 0.00 pay out on the 15th.. How am i supose to pay rent, eat, even put gas in my car?

SOME WIVES HAVE CHECKED THIER LES FOR NEXT WEEK DOCKED 1/2 OF THE PAY ALREADY. THIS IS A OUTRAGE. WE HAVE BILLS TO PAY KIDS TO FEED. ARE WE EXPECTED TO STAND IN LONG LINES FOR FOOD AND MAYBE SOME MONEY TO PAY OUR BILLS? ARE WE GOING TO HAVE OUR UTILITES SHUT OFF? ARE WE GOING TO HAVE OUR MORTAGES BECOME LATE LOSE OUR HOUSE? MAYBE OBAMA AND CONGRESS NEED TO LOSE ALL THEIR MONEY THEY ARE PUTTING ALL THE MILITARY MEN AND WIVES IN TO A NATION WIDE HYSTERIA.

Valerie, I’m sorry to hear this. The Govt. has until midnight tonight to reach an agreement, and if they reach an agreement before the next payday, then there shouldn’t be much disruption, if any. Military members will receive back pay if there is an issue. I will write another article on this topic and how military members and their families can cope. My thoughts and prayers are with everyone.

Its an absolute outrage that congress will be payed and soldiers will not.
Then what should happen is that they should send all the congress members and anyone else involed in this ‘budget agreement’ to replace my and every other soldier that is away from their family over seas as well as here in the US. Soldiers and their familes make enough of a sacrifice already to be put through this. And to think that the military is the one of the few places that one can have ‘job security’ and ‘stability, what a joke! The government that is. Im disgusted!

I know there are many of you out there with more difficult situations and loved ones overseas. However, my fiance and I are having trouble making ends meet due to the fact that his BAH hasn’t come through since April. He went back to school full time along with working full time and the government had been giving him his BAH since, but for months now he has been getting the run around, telling him the paperwork has been on their supervisor’s desk and just waiting to be processed every time he calls. Does anyone know what is going on? We can’t support our family without this money and we wouldn’t have counted on it if we hadn’t been given it in the first place.

Sarah, The best advice I can do is to recommend your fiance call every day and ask to speak with the supervisor until the situation has been resolved. I would also take down the information each time you make a call so he has good records of the conversations. This would include the date and time he called, the name and rank of the person he spoke with, their phone number, the answer he received, etc. Each time he receive an unsatisfactory answer he should politely request to speak with the person in charge.

Additionally, your fiance should speak with his First Sergeant. It’s his job to help his troops resolve situations such as these.

Oh well that’s nice, I get half a check to feed me my wife and my 14 month old daughter plus play all my bills. It’s ironic how if any military member failed to perform his or her duties could possible be discharged.. Yet that’s the reason we’re not getting paid. DISGUSTING!

Can I just clarify what was written here about leave? If an R&R is scheduled to take place and the government is shut down, they will cancel it completely, or delay it until the government resumes operations?

My fiance has been overseas for the past 8 months and set to come home shortly. He’s been on a downhill slope mentally for the last month and the ONLY thing keeping him going right now is a chance to be home for a couple short weeks. They are really going to take that away from him? After he’s watched all of his counterparts coming and going for R&R? The pay…is a non-issue for us. We will be fine as far as our savings is concerned. (Though I feel terrible for those that will be affected by the pay-delay.)

Chelle, it may cause the postponement of leave. Based on what I have read, leave may be canceled because of an administrative issue regarding how leave can and cannot be processed. Unfortunately, we are all in a wait and see mode.

Best of luck to you and your finance, along with everyone else who may be affected by this possible shut down.

will the shut down effect me getting a replacement social security card?? because i just got a new job and i need to get that before i can start..i heard it won’t effect it but then i heard it might so…..??

Sarah, it may. The government is currently working on a possible extension that would give them through the weekend to work on this situation, but it’s all still up in the air at the present time. The best thing you can do is continue checking with the news and with the Social Security website to see if their services have been affected. You won’t be able to get a replacement card over the weekend, so be sure to watch the news and check in first thing Monday morning.

As disgusted as I am with all this I’m still trying to stay informed and prepared for anything. With that said, my husband pays child support every on every pay check. How will all this affect his child support payments. Will the little that we might get paid end up going to child support? Or….?

Well, here’s the thing. I’m a A1C in the airforce. You can’t quite critique the present politics ability to do their job, you are kot them. You don’t know the difficulty in trying to form a budget of a whole country with 300 million+ people . At some point in your life your abilities were questioned it’s the same thing just on a bigger scale. Yes their job is to make a budget and just because they are trained in that does not mean they can just magically come up with an amazing bill. Just like if your on the battlefield in a firefight and your surrounded and your out of options to get out safely you can’t magically come up with a plan. You have to take the necessary measures to form a coherent and productive plan. I’m a in the medical field and I work with doctors every day in the ER an sometimes it takes them three hours to come uobwith a diagnosis or a plan of action for a particular patient. The patient gets mad because it takes forever or their left in the dark but the soca can’t help it. And plus a responsible individual should have savings Yo fall back on, you can’t complain about not making it if through out your life you spent money on things you didn’t need rather then saving the money. That’s your fault. I’m a A1C and I’ve been working since I was 6 and I saved money since then. Should have Bren more like then going out and blowing your money

Freedom is not free!!! How bold is it that Congress wants to continue to get paid while those who protect their freedom, those that put their lives on the line sit back and suck it?!!! If we look back on the foundations of democracy, this would have resulted in armed revolt against the Senators in Rome. And what does the rest of the country do: they sit back sipping their coffee and just let it happen! Enough is enough–it is time for Americans to become more politically involved and if the freshman republicans think this is an appropriate way of conducting the business of the country they have no place in Washington. Lead, follow or get out of the way! If republicans don’t want to do the right thing find someone who does! But don’t expect the military to sit back and just let it happen.

As someone who has many friends in the military I think this is outrageous. My father went through hell in Vietnam and if he was told he had to continue doing it without pay I would take that a personal insult fifty years later. These men and women don’t get paid much but forcing them to hold out for free would be sick.

back pay? really….do you know how hard it is to get back pay from the military? near impossible! it’ll take ages for everyone to get their back pay, and even longer if the payments are incorrect. Another thing, these troops are going off to war and willing to give the ultimate sacrifice yet the government is saying “sorry, we can’t pay you…but you’re still expected to risk your life in the war zone.” so as i’ve said before they’re good enough to die but not pay? what a slap in the face. what about their families? who’s going to pay our rent, buy food for us and our kids, etc? Are the morons in capital hill still going to get paid? most likely, so why don’t they opt to give their checks to those who will not be paid…since they don’t need the money…and if they knew this was going to be an issue why did they get a 6.1 million dollar bonus to split between themselves?!

ok i know everyone is angry but you signed up to serve ME personally i told them i would fight and give my life and thats what i intened to do pay or no pay yes i have a family but we will make it because i trust god so with that i will serve and give my life pay or no pay im serving my COUNTRY not my POLITICANS their not the country the U.S CITIZENS are the country…

What kills me is that the reason the Republicans won’t agree to a deal has NOTHING to do with the debt crisis. They were happy to run up the debt for years so who is going to believe they really care now? They won’t agree to it because they hope it will hurt Obama. He’s been compromising on everything but that’s making them even angrier. Sadly for them, most Americans are middle class and are not going to agree that they should pay for the debt crisis with their tax money while Americans making millions are paying 5% of their income in taxes. Fair is fair and it’s ridiculous that they’ve been allowed to exploit the middle class for so long. Whether you like Obama or not, if you aren’t making over $500,000 a year, you are a lot better off with him than a Republican.

This is crazy! How can the government expect our men and women in uniform to work for free! The last time I checked that was slavery!! My husband is an E3 in the Army, he is currently deployed to Afghanistan! We have 2 small children our son is 5 with special needs and our daughter is only 15 weeks old! If he does not get a paycheck PLEASE tell me HOW am I suppose to feed our children, buy diapers, wipes, pay the bills or even put gas in the car! The hot heads in Washington need to stop thinking about themselves and actually THINK about the American people that they promised to serve! Maybe they should all be handed m16 and loaded on a plane and sent over to Iraq or Afghanistan and made to protect this country! Maybe then they would respect the military more and provide for them the way they should!!

What if we veterans and our service persons just say no and don’t work for our gov. in any thing they want us to do? We can go and stop our own gov to force them to pay us all. I will not use the new haelth care service coming in Oct-2013 or use it in Jan-2014. I will force them to pay me and we can all do this fight.

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